Effect of hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions on the rheological behavior and microstructure of a ternary cellulose acetate system.

The effect of hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions on the rheological and microstructural behavior of cellulose acetate (CA) in a ternary CA, N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA), nonsolvent (alcohol) system was examined. Increasing nonsolvent concentration increased the viscosity and dynamic viscoelastic properties of the system. At a critical nonsolvent concentration, a sol-gel transition was observed, which was dependent on nonsolvent structure. Increasing the available hydrogen bonding groups within the nonsolvent led to higher modulus (stronger gels) and a sol-gel transition at lower nonsolvent concentration. Likewise, increasing the alkyl chain length (hydrophobicity) of the nonsolvent also enhanced the viscoelastic properties; however, hydrogen bonding, specifically the ability to hydrogen bond donate was critical for gel formation. For all gels studied, the elastic modulus shifts to higher values with increasing hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the nonsolvent and exhibits a power-law behavior with nonsolvent content. All of the gels exhibit similar fractal dimensions; however, confocal images of the different systems reveal distinct differences. Increasing the hydrophilicity of the nonsolvent led to a more uniform denser gel microstructure, whereas increasing the hydrophobicity resulted in a larger more heterogeneous network structure despite the increase in moduli.